Lord willing, we will be having our annual Bible conference this July 26th, 27th and 28th.
We would welcome all who are able to attend to join us in worship of Jesus Christ and in fellowship of the gospel of His Grace.
Click here for more details https://redeemersgrace.com/?page_id=2127
“After two days was the feast of the Passover, and of unleavened bread: and the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death. But they said, Not on the feast day, lest there be an uproar of the people (Mark 14:1-2).
In these two verses of Inspiration, the Holy Spirit shows us that the Lord our God is the God who can be trusted. Here is a glaring contrast between the God of the Bible and the gods of men. The gods of religion want to do things, desire to do things, and try to do things, but are unable to accomplish them because of the works of the devil and the wills of men. The God of the Bible, the only true God, our God and heavenly Father, never wants what to do, desires to do, or tries to do anything except what he does. He is a God in whom we can be confident, a God who can be trusted implicitly, because he always has his way and does as he will.
Here in Mark 14, we have a very clear example of God’s sovereignty and omnipotent power to accomplish his will. Here we see our great God disappointing the plans and designs of wicked men, overruling their wills and decisions, to accomplish his own eternal purpose of grace in predestination Notice the words of our text, “The chief priests and the scribes sought how they might take him by craft, and put him to death.” But that was not what God had purposed. Therefore, in his wise and adorable providence, he simply overruled their schemes. God defeated their counsel and performed his own.
Our God is in control of this world, absolutely in control of it (Psalm 76:10). That God, and that God alone, who is in absolute, total control of the entire universe, we can and should trust with implicit confidence in all things and with all things. If the god you trust can be controlled, hindered, or even influenced by you, by Satan, or by all the powers of earth and hell, then the god you trust is not God at all. Our God is not a spectator or even a competitor in this world. He is the Ruler of it. Salvation is knowing him, the only true and living God as he is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ his Son, the God-man, our Savior (John 17:3). He who is our God is the God, the only God you can trust.
Don Fortner
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. Mark 16:15-16
For whatever reason men deny, discount, or make light of the immersion of believers as the public profession of salvation, I challenge them to do so using the Scriptures rather than their denominational fathers and their own human logic. The Scriptures require that every person who claims Christ as Lord and Savior should be immersed (Mark 16:16; Matt. 28:19; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; Acts 9:18). Read the accounts of conversion in the New Testament and you’ll find that all of them publicly professed their faith in Christ by following the Lord Jesus in baptism. You may sprinkle your infants and say that this ritual takes the place of circumcision. Paul was circumcised as an infant but when he became a believer in Christ he was baptized! Why be immersed when, like some of you, he had fulfilled the covenant ceremony? He was immersed to fulfill all righteousness, to be identified with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection, and to publicly confess his faith in the Lord Jesus! And, I might add, to obey the command of his Lord!
While I know that baptism has been misused, misplaced, and misapplied, it is still the Scriptural way to confess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Henry Mahan
I was thinking this week how impossible it would be for a true, God-called preacher, to preach anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ and him crucified. How could I, a desperately wicked sinner, stand week after week, and service after service and tell men how to live, when I struggle and fail daily myself? How could I, the wretched and depraved man that I am, tell others how to become better spouses, parents, children, friends, employers and employees, when I have failed and continue to fail miserably at these things myself? What hypocrisy and vanity that would be! It is not my place to try to straighten people out. A wise and older friend of mine told me not long ago, concerning preaching, to always remember that a man could shear a sheep many times, but he could only slay a sheep once. Friends, it is the preaching of Jesus Christ only that causes us to decrease (sheared). My responsibility is not to tell people how to live, but proclaim to them how our Savior lived, died and resurrected, doing everything perfectly for and in the place of hell-deserving sinners. If God is pleased to save a man or woman, that person will want to hear only one message and one message only: — That Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that sinners come to Christ by free and sovereign grace alone for eternal life.
A beautiful message from our brother David Eddmenson, pastor of Bible Baptist Church in Madisonville, KY
“And Jesus said unto [the crucified thief], Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.” (Luke 23.43)
Every life that ends in Christ is a good life. Sometimes God will allow one of his elect to live an entire life of sin, rebellion and violence, then, at the very end of it, call that person to Himself, just as he did with the thief on the cross. Others of His elect He might call early in their lives but leave them encompassed with infirmities such that they never seem of much use to anyone else; He may leave them to struggle with such illness that they cannot leave their homes; He might let them suffer unending pain and know little happiness, He might impoverish them so that they cannot see where the next meal will come from; they may suffer untold grief in the loss of their dearest loved ones and die alone so far as earthly family is concerned; they may die a miserable, slow, painful death; they may see their children rebel against God; they may work hard and gain much only to have it all taken from them, their life’s work crumble right before their eyes; yes, they may experience any of the sorrows and difficulties and outright tragedies that the children of wrath suffer. Yet, their life ends in Christ, so it is a good life.
Someone once said, “If we had God’s power, we would change everything; if we had God’s wisdom, we would change nothing.” Do not despair of your life if you find it a troublesome thing: many a winding, treacherous road leads to a safe haven. Many there are who float through life serenely, and men will praise them at their departure and count them among the blessed of God, yet their life ends outside of Christ, and their life is proven a waste, indeed. And many, like this thief on Calvary, will die cursed of men, considered to be a waste of human flesh, yet will be blessed of God, having had a good life.
So, do not despair of your life or the lives of your loved ones. Have you much suffering now? If your life ends in Christ, you are having a good life. Do you see your children and other loved ones living a godless life? Do not despair: they may be on the road to Christ.
Pastor Joe Terrell
Some happy truth from our late brother Joe Terrell, former pastor of Grace Community Church in Iowa.
It is good to live near the grave for it is in the light of the grave that we see this life as it really is – vanity. No matter the kind of life a person lives, it comes to the grave. The grave also teaches us that our hope must lie beyond what is found in this world: If everything here is vanity, then things of value and substance must be found elsewhere. The grave also teaches us how to live this present life: We must live our lives in the pursuit of Christ and the things concerning Him. Even as we enjoy the transient things of this life, let our eyes be fixed on things above, where Christ is. For the one whose heart is in this world, the grave puts an end to all he hoped for. But for the one whose heart is set on the world beyond the grave, the grave is merely the portal to the realization of all he has hoped for.
Please consider this wisdom from our brother Larry Criss, pastor of Fairmont Grace Church, Sylacauga Alabama
“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; …” – Matthew 7:21
I suppose I think about this passage of Scripture as much as I do any other. The LORD Jesus Christ Himself tells us “in that day,” that day when all hearts will be exposed, when the true sheep of God will be eternally separated from the many mere professors, when every false hope will be proven false, and every fig leave of self-righteousness has been stripped away by the hand of that Just and Holy GOD, in that day when multitudes stand before God with only their own works as their hope of entering heaven. I cannot imagine the utter horror that will overwhelm such people when they hear Jesus Christ say to them: “I never knew you: depart from me.”
I shudder to think that among that many, I see the faces of friends I have known over the years, I also see the faces of many dear family members, and I see the faces of many to whom I have preached the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. I see their fig leaves ripped away and now they stand before God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, without a mediator! Because Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and men, has already told them: “I never knew you: depart from me!” In the closing of this chapter in Matthew 7, the LORD tells us how such a horrible thing takes place – These many started wrong. They never had laid their hope on Jesus Christ, the Rock on which the church of God is built. They had done everything but that, made decisions, were baptized, joined up, without ever truly believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to the saving of their souls. May God not allow us to build our hope on the sands of our own works, because if He doesn’t, that’s exactly what we’ll do. God, please reveal your Son to us, whom to know is life eternal. Amen
While I draw this fleeting breath,
When my eyelids close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne;
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
A truly humble man is sensible . . .
of his natural distance from God;
of his dependence on Him;
of the insufficiency of his own power and wisdom;
that it is by God’s power that he is upheld and provided for; that he needs God’s wisdom to lead and guide him;
that he needs God’s might to enable him to do what he ought to do for Him.
-Jonathan Edwards